Today is cloudy and very cold for this time of year. Before I go over today, though, I want to highlight the rest of a vacation.

There was a heavy rain on Tuesday evening, and I found that I could not keep the middle of the back gutter up anymore by propping it from behind. So I went to Lowe’s, bought a downspout, cut it to the proper length, and used that to prop the back gutter from the bottom of the gutter.

I ought to have called that Handy Randy guy this week. But I never got around to it. I will try Monday afternoon after my dentist appointment.

I also worked on two posts I bought earlier this year. I carved slots into one end, cut them to size, and painted them white. They are now holding up the stairs to the upper room. I had wanted to do this because, the way the stairs were set up originally, the wall along its side was cracking from the stress. Now that this is done, I can repair the wall.

I forgot to mention that Monday was Caitlin Clarke’s birthday. After the yard work, I went to the Olive Garden in Muncie and ate a dinner in her honor.

I have been dormant for most of the day. Yesterday evening I went to this month’s Whoosier Network meeting, where I saw the first two of three episodes of the new season of Doctor Who. Afterwards we went to Pizzeria Uno, where admittedly I ate too much. My stomach has been sour ever since.

I did some shopping in Marion this afternoon. Before heading home, I visited Matter Park on Marion’s north side. My folks took me there a lot as a kid, both as a family and as part of group activities. I can remember the band shell (a quarter-hemisphere under which bands would play), a museum and a zoo, and some metal statue of a woman with a pair of scales. I also remember a roller coaster, which I rode on a couple of times. There was also a pool, which I saw on my way into the park, but my family never went there.

But all that was in the 1960’s. In the two decades since, the zoo was closed, and its animals sent elsewhere, due to deterioration and poor treatment of the animals by the public. The museum was closed and its exhibits removed. The rides and pool were torn down due to deterioration, according to Wiki Marion. The statue has fallen to pieces and was taken down. And the band shell was falling apart.

I walked around the park for a half hour. It was cold and cloudy: The perfect walk with a girl, provided the girl is a goth. Hardly anything remains of the Matter Park of the 1960’s. The park’s maintenance area is where the zoo once stood. The statue, the pool, the rides are all gone. The museum building is still there; but it is totally empty, from what I can see inside.

However, the city of Marion in recent years has worked to revive the park. The band shell as been rebuilt, with new seating. There are new jogging paths, and new benches. There are new play areas for children. There is even a disc golf course. And there are at least two concession stands in the park, but neither were open.

The artesian well and its surrounding building is still there. The pipes and faucets that supplied the well’s water to anyone who wanted a drink were removed. But the well still works, as the sound and the smell revealed.

Finally, I want to comment on an opinion article I read in this morning’s local paper. It was something about Billy Graham’s son getting kicked out of the Pentagon (I thought they did that years ago), and scanning brains of people of different religions to find what parts of the brain are simulated during prayer. That has got to be the stupidest thing I have ever read. I understood what she was trying to say: But the idea, that spirituality has anything to do with the goo in our heads, is not true. That is tantamount to all the stuff the Sofia Lamb character in Bioshock II spouts: That ‘god’ is moral duty and original sin is in the genes. Fixing human evil with technical fixes is not only evil, it does not work, too.